It’s been about two months since I sat through “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” full of excitement and still buzzing afterwards. But now the dust has settled and the film has come and gone it just clicked in my head… Oh my god! Crystal Skull was awful!!
I remember back in 1981 sitting in a converted church in Devon, England with my mum and dad about to watch a film called “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. I knew nothing about the film, only it was “meant to be great fun” according to my dad so sat there with my popcorn, feet barely touching the floor, waiting for it to happen. The lights faded and with no adverts (yes! there was a time where it wasn’t necessary!) the film began. I was hooked from the opening shot, to the pit of snakes, through the truck chase and yes I almost filled my undies during the opening of the ark. In fact that last scene was so scary I pretended to laugh throughout to hide the fact tears were streaming down my face.
Since that day I have watched Raiders countless times and it hasn’t aged a day. No dated CGI, just genius action sequences, great one-liners and a real sense of old fashioned adventure. In fact that film is so good all the failings of it’s sequels, which are many, are forgotten because you love being back in that great world and those characters.
So when i heard they were making a sequel I was apprehensive, it’s been too long, Ford is too old etc However, then Spielberg said what all real Indy fans wanted to hear, “We’re going old school and doing as much for real as possible!” Bearing in mind George Lucas would be heavily involved I breathed a sigh of relief especially after his best supporting cast member went to ILM in the Star Wars prequels.
To my horror the “real” part Spielberg mentioned in Crystal Skull would be the actual actors still being used for the most part and the rest could have elements of CGI, if required. And generally it helped (Area 51 sequence once it gets going is top drawer Indy) but the sequence I can never forgive is the awful monkey swinging CGI which took a franchise and flushed it head first down the toilet for me. It’s not the idea of Mutt swinging on vines with monkeys, it’s more Spielberg couldn’t train real monkeys, like the nazi saluting one in Raiders, and have them cgi’d swinging next to Shia Labouf. Lazy filmmaking if you ask me!
Also, I think my delayed reaction to all this was the fact that when I saw the film I was so happy to be back in that world and some of the film just washed over me as I ate my popcorn and enjoyed going on one last adventure with Indy. But after reading “The Complete Making of Indiana Jones” I still adore the original trilogy but despise the new installment. There was no sense of adventure or travelling as everything looked like a soundstage, Marion did very little, script spent too much time trying to put in old references than create new ones and took a good 10 minutes to get going when the previous three films had fantastic opening sequences.
I could go on but you realise after reading the making of book that the final story for the film is not what anyone other than Lucas wanted, in fact you feel the story has stayed the same for the last 12 years. Just a shame they didn’t make it back then and at least we would have still had Connery and John Rhys Davies to steady the ship. “Alienshh?”
Popularity: 39% [?]
July 14th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I would say the first 75% (if you subtract the aforementioned CGI monkeys and lose most all of the jungle scene) was somewhat entertaining. What I couldn’t endure was the bizarre ending that made The X Files seem like it belongs on the History Channel.
The effects for the assembled “Mega Alien” were poor at best and that sequence so defied reason, explanation, and purpose that I could see Lucas’ poor script writing all over it.
Now granted, ROTLA, TOD, and LC, all had weird endings. But Crystal Skull’s departure into alien sci-fi set this movie into a category all it’s own from the original trilogy … a bad one.
JB@TheLaunchingPad
July 16th, 2008 at 11:35 am
To blogger globelliedand comment person JBinATL:
Too many movies, not enough English classes: The correct spelling of the possessive of the word it is its, not it’s.
It’s is a contraction for the words it is.
I say this not to be a nitpicking jerk but out of love and respect for the English language. Thanks.
July 16th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Okay? Thanks for taking the time out to provide that insightful comment on Indiana Jones… and you meant “possessive of the word is its” not “possessive of the word it is its”. I say this just to annoy you:-) Thanks
July 17th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
The refrigerator scene pushed the envelope of believability.